Call For Artists: Fill & Download for Free

This is the reason MTV experienced such a decline: MTV lacked vision and without vision you perish.In the beginning, MTV had amazing vision. It was a brilliant idea to start doing what they did. MTV was the hippest thing on TV in the 80s. People who didn't have cable TV yet were so upset that they couldn't get MTV in their neighborhood that they wrote letters to complain to the cable TV companies!Unfortunately for MTV, they didn’t have any real vision of where to take it from where it was when it was at its peak of popularity and keep it at that level or close to it. They didn’t adapt well when things started changing.MTV was the impetus for artists to develop unique, glamorous visual images. For artists like Madonna, it was the best thing that could have happened to them.MTV was in an enviable position in the 80s. Not only were they an incredibly successful business, but they had no direct competitors! Their competition was other networks, but none of those networks specialized in doing anything similar to what MTV did. Most of the time when a once successful business fails it is because someone comes along and outdoes them at what they are doing. That didn't happen to MTV.It seemed like half the girls in my college dorm had a George Michael poster. MTV was a godsend for artists who were good looking and a curse for those who were not.People love novelty. For there to suddenly be a network that showed nothing but music videos and interviews with musicians was amazing! Just like with anything else, after years and years of seeing that, it wasn’t as exciting anymore to people because the novelty had worn off by then.MTV was in a situation where they had to adapt. They needed a vision for how to keep their product fresh and exciting. They had no vision for how to do that.They had done the glamorous image thing to death. People were looking for more substance. Why not adapt to that, instead of just quitting showing music videos?The Unplugged series was a good idea, but they didn’t follow up on it. Unplugged was the last good idea MTV had.They were Music TV. They strayed so far away from that, to still call it Music TV was a joke. They were showing third rate soap operas under the name “reality shows.” Reality shows aren't reality; they are show business!You might ask, then why do it? They did it for the worst reasons imaginable: “Reality shows” were shows where you didn't need to pay real actors and you didn’t need to pay an expensive script writer. They were also easy to make.MTV went for the easiest, cheapest option available. That’s a sad epitaph for a network that once was the hottest thing on TV.EDIT: I’m glad that so many of you have enjoyed this answer. It was one of the rare times Quora actually gave one my better answers some exposure. Usually they ignore my best answers. Case in point:

It is the purpose of the arts to comment on the world around us. Why on Earth would it not then be appropriate for artists, when they are given a platform, to use it to comment on the world around us?I strongly support artists commenting on the world around us, especially to call out injustice.Director Alfonso Cuarón said it well, at tonight’s Oscars:“As artists, our job is to look where others don’t. This responsibility becomes much more important in times when we are being encouraged to look away.”

“Hello, is Mable there?”Oh geez. Not another one. I had Mable’s old number and had had it for a few years. Every now and then I would get a call for her. Evidently Mable and her husband had once owned a time share so I got a lot of calls asking if she wanted to sell her time share. The only way to get rid of a timeshare scam artist is to hang up the phone, I learned. The other calls were less annoying and they were usually from someone in her church. It seems that the church had a directory. Either the directory had never been updated or the folks were just using the old one. I was always nice to the church folks as I explained that the number had changed. I always asked if they would pass along to their pastor that it was time for an update.One day in the paper I saw an obituary for Mable. Well, I thought, sorry Mable but this should cut down the phone calls from church. It did. Several months later I got a call for Mable and I replied, “I’m sorry to have to tell you this but I saw Mable’s obituary in the paper some time back. She’s gone.” Laughter on the other end? “No, Mable is fine. I’m her pastor. Saw her in church Sunday morning. She’s doing great.” Oh great, I thought. “Pastor, well, the number is changed. Please update your church directory.”Then tonight, I get another call for Mable. “No, the number is changed. She doesn’t have this number any more.”“oh” the voice on the other end sounded like a very sad young man. After a pause he asked, “Do you live in a brick, one-storey house?”“No, that’s not how it works. I didn’t move into Mable’s house. After she changed her number her old one was assigned to me. The number doesn’t stay with the house.”“Do you know her new number?” He sounded as if he had lot his very last friend. I was hooked.“No, I don’t know her. Never heard of her until I started getting phone calls for her. I can’t help you.”“OK. It was just that I am her grandson. I was given up for adoption when I was 5 or 6 years old. Now I would like to talk to my grandma and this is the only number that I remembered.”Click.